This is just too cool. Over on her message board, Gail Simone is giving big thanks to Phil Jimenez, Greg Rucka, and other former Wonder Woman writers for helping her develop “a cohesive vision of Wonder Woman that says definitely who she is, but doesn’t throw out all the great stuff that came before.”
According to Simone:
A lot of times, these great writers didn’t get to finish their major plots and subplots as they had hoped. Fortunately, I’ve been able to ask them directly.
It’s amazing how uniformly gracious and helpful they have been. I think it shows that whatever else, Diana has been blessed with some really generous, good-hearted writers who really care about how she is portrayed. I have never yet had a former writer not respond to my questions or fail to be helpful. Everyone from George Perez, to John Byrne, to Trina Robbins, to Allan Heinberg, to Jodi Picoult has been right there every time I ask a question. They’re all busy, busy people. They don’t have time to waste discussing books they no longer work on, and yet, every time I’ve asked, a few hours later, I get a great response in the mail answering my question and offering to help again if it ever comes up.
THAT, my friends, is VERY VERY COOL.
Indeed it is.
April 24th, 2008 at 9:33 am
I’ve been hesistant to jump on with WW, only because I’m not sure if there’s a good “jumping on” point or not. I tried Picoult out (because I do like her as a novelist), only to find myself incredibly disappointed.
I think she was hamstrung by both Heinberg’s disasterous run, as well as having to write a story that tied in with DC’s biggest faux pas of 2007 (Amazons Attack). She was new to comics, and Editorial didn’t do her any favors.
I’m thinking that Trinity may really give WW a chance to shine alongside Supes and Bats, and maybe along the way I’ll find a good entry point to Gail’s series too. I know she’ll do a great job, I just hope there she doesn’t have to deal with too much baggage of what preceded her.
April 24th, 2008 at 10:21 am
Cool of them to help Simone out, yeah, and it’s also really cool of her to ask in the first place. I hate it when new writers start their runs with no particular attention to what their predecessors had been up to. That way lies inconsistency, continuity errors, retcons, and madness.
April 24th, 2008 at 10:33 am
To Shaun
I think DC Universe #0 will provide a pretty good jumping on point for the upcoming arc of WW. And I have been really impressed by whatever Gail has done so far.
April 24th, 2008 at 11:58 am
Thanks Moored… I’ll see what happens in that book. I’ve been hoping to steer clear of Final Crisis, since I’m not a fan of huge “events” like that. Not to mention I’m one of the few who does NOT like the multiverse, and I’m sure that’s a part of all of this (because, hey, it’s DC).
So I’ll go into DCU #0 with some trepidation, since we don’t know what will come of Final Crisis, but if it sort of starts things with a clean slate it might be the right time to give Gail’s WW a try. Your opinion of her run seems to echo pretty much everyone else’s to this point, so it’s probably really good! Perhaps I’ll find out for myself soon enough.
April 24th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
Shaun,
I think that WW #18, which came out in March, is a good place to jump on.
April 25th, 2008 at 10:56 am
Bless her heart for actually taking the time and trouble to do a little research. I wish that more writers would do the same.
April 25th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
Ryan, thanks for the tip! I’ll take a peek if my LCS still has it.
January 17th, 2011 at 9:25 pm
I really like this site and Blog@Newsarama » Blog Archive » Gail Simone collaborating with past Wonder Woman writers . I read about you on another site I found on Google and thought they had great views as well.